CURWENSVILLE – Coming off of a tough 54-52 loss to Clearfield on Friday night in the season opener, the Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team opened its home schedule on Monday night at Patton Hall.
And it was another down to the wire contest as this time the Golden Tide won 57-54 over visiting West Branch in overtime in Moshannon Valley League action (MVL).
Matt Wassil, after two close game to start the year, afterwards, with a smile, said it best, “I don’t know if I can handle twenty more like these first two games, but the guys came through tonight and I can’t help but think that the close game Friday against Clearfield helped us tonight.”
Curwensville took a 12-11 edge into the second quarter thanks to eight points from junior Avery Francisco
The Warriors, under sixth year head coach Danny Clark, would win the second frame 14-10 to take a 25-22
lead into intermission in a quarter that saw that saw the lead change hands seven times.
Juniors Matt Fluck and Larry Cowder each had six points in the second eight minutes for West Branch.
Christian Bakaysa with eight tallies and Josh Terry with six in the third quarter gave the Tide a 41-36 margin with eight minutes left in regulation.
Curwensville had the biggest lead of either team, 38-30, in the third, after a 6-0 run on buckets by Bakaysa, Terry and senior Devon Barrett.
The Warriors made it a one point game, trailing just 41-40 on baskets by John Arnold and Cowder with 6:30 to play.
The Golden Tide maintained the lead in the fourth quarter until Cowder made both ends of two free throws with just 55 seconds left to knot the score at 46-46, sending the two MVL opponents into the four minute overtime period.
And it was Terry time in OT as the offensive minded guard scored 10 of the Tide’s 11 points, including six of six from the charity stripe, as Curwensville pulled out the 57-54 win to even its record at 1-1.
West Branch is now 0-2.
Terry, coming off a 27 point performance against Clearfield, paced the Golden Tide with 25 while teammate Bakaysa added 12.
But perhaps the biggest contributor for Curwensville was Francisco who powered his way for approximately 20 rebounds with many on the defensive boards, not allowing the Warriors many second chance buckets.
For the Warriors Cowder, a junior, poured in 24 points.
Wassil then talked about the play of his team, saying, “We expected to make plays tonight, and we did. But we had too many first half turnovers that we corrected over the last two quarters. We know we have to grow as a team and make a few more shots.”
West Branch won the junior varsity game 57 -31 as Chance Eboch poured in 33 points for the Warriors while Dakota Bloom had 11 for the Tide.
Curwensville is off until Friday when it travels to Houtzdale to play another MVL foe, Moshannon Valley.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
WEST BRANCH 11 14 11 10 8 54
CURWENSVILLE 12 10 19 5 11 57
THREE-POINTERS: WEST BRANCH – 5 Fluck 2, Cowder 2, Eboch
CURWENSVILLE – 1 Von Gunden
WEST BRANCH – 54
Matt Fluck 3 1-2 9, John Arnold 1 0-0 2, Ayden Gutierrez 2 1-2 5, David Guerra 3 0-0 6, Larry
Cowder 8 6-7 24, Tyler Hoover 0 0-0 0, Doug Kolesar 0 0-0 0, Mason Emigh 0 0-2 0,
Gage Thompson 0 0-0 0, Trenton Bellomy 0 0-0 0, Chance Eboch 2 3-4 8
TOTALS – 19 11-17 54
CURWENSVILLE – 57
Josh Terry 8 9-10 25, Devon Barrett 2 2-2 6, Noah Von Gunden 1 2-4 5, Christian Bakaysa 6 0-0 12, Avery Francisco 3 3-5 9, Jeremy Irwin 0 0-0 0, Dakota Bloom 0 0-0 0, Nate McKenrick 0 0-0 0
TOTALS – 20 16-21 57
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich and Rich Gormont
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
12/08 | @ Clearfield | 52 – 54 | 0 – 1 |
12/11 | WEST BRANCH | 57 – 54 ot | 1 – 1 |
12/15 | @ Mo Valley | ||
12/20 | GLENDALE | ||
12/28 | @ Freeport Tourney | ||
12/29 | @ Freeport Tourney | ||
01/03 | @ Ridgway | ||
01/05 | BROCKWAY | ||
01/09 | DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH | ||
01/11 | HARMONY | ||
01/16 | @ Elk County Catholic | ||
01/19 | KANE | ||
01/22 | MO VALLEY | ||
01/23 | RIDGWAY | ||
01/26 | @ Brockway | ||
01/31 | @ Glendale | ||
02/02 | JOHNSONBURG | ||
02/06 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | ||
02/07 | @ West Branch | ||
02/09 | @ Sheffield | ||
02/12 | CLEARFIELD | ||
02/14 | @ Harmony |